Juan Ignacio Molina (Spanish pronunciation: [xwan iɣˈnasjo moˈlina]; (June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean-Spanish Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist, and linguist.

[1] Molina was born at Guaraculén, a big farm located near Villa Alegre (General Captaincy of Chile), where he lived until he was 5 years old.

At the same time, the Jesuits settled in the block called "las Arboledas", in the newly created Villa de Talca, where they built their residence house.

[5] In those calm and quiet conditions he revived the intellectual work that would later make him well known, Molina delved into the study of the classics and the natural sciences.

In 1761, in a room at the Universidad Pontificia Colegio Máximo de San Miguel, Molina renounced his assets, setting aside 100 pesos from these that were reserved for the purchase of books.

For example, he published (1782) the Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Cile, in which he described the natural history of Chile for the first time and introduced numerous species native to that country to science.

His admirable style, clear, elegant and simple, together with his philosophical and positive spirit, gave his works the character of brilliance.

In response, his students gave him snuff and coffee, two of the simple passions of the now elderly priest, who lived in a modest house on the outskirts of Bologna.

According to his proposition, the Creator organized nature not into three totally different kingdoms (animal, mineral, vegetable), but as a continuous chain of organization, without sudden steps or breaks, into «three species of life, that is, the formative, vegetative and sensitive life; so that the first, destined to minerals, participates to some degree in the second, typical of plants, and this, in the third, assigned to animals.

In the second mentioned work, Molina proposed the thesis that the observable physical differences in the human race are due to climatic and geographical factors.

He knew of the death of his mother, his brother, and his nephew Agustín Molina, the only male in the family and heir to his grandparents' fortune.

The ungrateful nephew, who never had a deference for his uncle who lived in exile beyond the seas, married Doña Manuela Vergara, with whom he was neither happy nor succeeded.

Upon his death, which occurred suddenly in the houses of the Huaraculén hacienda in February 1815, his property was passed on to his uncle, who was the sole heir.

Juan Ignacio, with deep pain and sadness, replied by letter dated in Bologna on December 11, 1815, which reads as follows: Dear nephew: I do not doubt that you allow me to treat you as a son, because I always had you for such the time that you were my disciple.

I hope to leave from here, with our common relative, Bachiller, in the month of April or May and embark in Cádiz, on the way back from my beloved Chile.

In the meantime, I beg you to administer the estate of the deceased in my name, with absolute power and in case I die on the trip, I will leave Bachiller my last disposition concerning the assets that exist, of which you will have a part.

With such good news, he thought to move onto Cádiz in 1816, with his relative Manuel Bachiller to the home of his friend Nicolás de la Cruz Bahamonde, Conde del maule.

Unfortunately it could not be carried out, since Don Ignacio Opazo, did not reach him to remit three thousand pesos that he asked for from his inheritance to make his trip.

"[citation needed] During his conversation with Cienfuegos, he expressed his desire to dedicate his fortune to the construction of a house of education in Talca.

Since 1814 he had felt his health decline, but he remained in good condition until 1825; he could read with ease, teach poor children for free, and go on his daily walk.

His true evil was the old age, in his last days a slow and painful agony made him suffer great bitterness and a constant and devouring thirst.

[8] Ruiz and Pavón dedicated to him the plant genus Molina, later considered a subgenus of Baccharis by Wilhelm Heering (Reiche 1902), and recently recreated as Neomolina by F.H.